As a long time fan of horror in all it’s entertainment forms (movies, television, novels, comic books, et al) I have seen many of movie studio Full Moon’s mostly horror movie offerings. My favorite property in their catalog is Puppet Master by Charles Band. Watching people get killed by homicidal dolls is mindless yet brilliant fun. These may not be Academy Award winning features, but the insanity and mindless fun has been much appreciated by this viewer.

A while back I went to a local comic book store and saw a new number one issue of Puppet Master published by Action Lab Comics. There have been other Puppet Master comics from other publishers in the past, but this was the first in a while plus, even though I have heard of Action Lab, I had never purchased one of their titles before. Puppet Master is the first for me and I enjoyed the title immensely and will definitely check out Action Lab’s other offerings.

I always appreciate when a writer (Shawn Gabborin in this case) seems to know his material and does not try to “recreate the wheel” when giving his own spin on the property. Gabborin does a great job of giving us a brief introduction to the main characters without boring everyone with a long, drawn out ‘previously on Puppet Master’ explanation. It is done very organically with a group of young people going to spend the weekend in the house from the movies and one of the characters naturally explaining the history of said home. Things quickly go awry and the puppets show up and start to graphically take out some of the visitors in brilliant Full Moon style.

The artwork by Michela Da Sacco is perfect for the title and fits the property perfectly. Crisp linework that gives the impression of gritty/dirty horror captures the eye and makes you really want to see what horrible thing happens next.

Fun read, perfect for any horror fans, and a title that I hope has a long shelf life.